Smith and Plath

In poetry, tone helps with understanding its meaning. In "Not Waving but Drowning" by Stevie Smith, the tone is "matter of fact". In the second stanza, the dead man's friend is emotionless towards the death of his friend. Once the dead man speaks, the tone remains slightly the same with a hint of despair. The dead man is covering up his emotions, the same way he covers his depression from his friend. The statement "(Still the dead one laying moaning)" (515) emphasizes how sad he is, but at the same moment he is correcting his friend. The dead man is potentially numb from depression which makes the tone somewhat emotionless. He gives up all hope in the very end when he states "And not waving but drowning" (515), which gives a tone of despair.

In "Metaphors" by Sylvia Plath, the tone is negative towards pregnancy. The speaker states "I'm a riddle in nine syllables" (528) meaning she contains a nine month problem. The second example is "Boarded the train there's no getting off" (528) illustrates at a point of no return. These responses leads one to believe that the tone must be upset. No happy mother would consider themselves "a means, a stage, a cow in calf."